


Red Letter

by talefeathers



Category: Snowpiercer (2013)
Genre: Blood, Broken Tooth, Gen, the first red letter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-07-10 10:02:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6978832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talefeathers/pseuds/talefeathers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Edgar broke a tooth on the first red letter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Red Letter

Edgar broke a tooth on the first red letter.

Curtis was behind him in the breakfast line when it happened, his eyes glazed over as he shuffled forward to receive his daily protein block. Edgar, on the other hand, was all talk and energy, as was typical of him. Curtis wondered in the back of his mind how the kid could talk the way he did without having to stop for air.

“I’m telling you,” he was saying, “This shite’s stunted my growth. I’d be taller than you are by now if I were eatin’ steak and eggs and the like -- much obliged,” he said to the guard who handed him his protein block. “I really do appreciate it. I dunno how you fellas keep up all your hard work; imagine it’s just back-breakin’ --”

Curtis shoved him along with a warning look and collected his own protein block, watching the guards warily in his periphery. They’d punished Edgar for less in the past, but it seemed that today they were in a forgiving mood.

Edgar moved along, but the moment he was out of the guards’ sight he pulled a face at them. Then, shooting Curtis a grin, he took a chomp out of his protein block.

A bolt of panic shot through Curtis when Edgar cried out, his hand jumping to his mouth.

“What was that?” one of the guards asked, turning.

“Nothin’, nothin’,” Edgar said, ducking his head and waving them off. Unwilling, Curtis knew, to give them the satisfaction of having hurt him.

The guards turned back to the task at hand without so much as a second glance. But Curtis had seen tears shining in Edgar’s eyes before he’d made a beeline toward the back of the car. Anger boiled in his chest as he followed Edgar back to their bunks.

“What did they do?” he asked the moment they were out of earshot. “What did those bastards put in your food?”

“I’m fine --” Edgar started, but swallowed his words when a spot of blood dropped from his mouth. 

He sighed, pulling his tattered sleeve across his chin. Then he held a hand out to Curtis with two things in it: a bloody, splintered molar and a small, metal capsule.

“The fuck is that, d’you think?” Edgar asked, nearly unintelligible between the accent and the missing tooth.

“Dunno,” Curtis said, gingerly plucking it from Edgar’s hand.

He rolled it between his fingers for a moment before noticing a crack down the center. He became very aware of his heartbeat as he pulled the capsule apart.

Coiled tightly within was a red slip of paper. Curtis removed it and pulled it flat. Written on it in black was a single word:

_PREPARE_

“What the hell,” Edgar murmured in an awestruck hush.

“I don’t know,” Curtis said, heart pounding in his throat. 

What he did know was that this was almost definitely a message from farther up in the train. And no one from farther up had tried to contact the tail section since…

Curtis swallowed. Since the McGregor Riot.

“Come on,” he said, standing. “We have to show this to Gilliam.”


End file.
